Business Briefs: Covenant's losses widen

Business Briefs: Covenant's losses widen

Higher fuel and wage costs and adverse winter weather widened first-quarter losses from a year ago for Covenant Transportation Group Inc.

The Chattanooga-based trucking company said Tuesday it lost $2.5 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $2.2 million, or 15 cents per share, a year ago.

Freight revenue was down 3.8 percent. But fuel prices in the first quarter of 2011 were up 27 percent over a year ago, the company said.

Cornerstone gain slips 27%

The parent company of Cornerstone Community Bank in Chattanooga reported a 27 percent drop in first-quarter earnings, but the bank also cut its nonperforming loans and beefed up loan loss reserve this winter.

Cornerstone said Tuesday it earned $252,000 in the three months ended March 31 while overall bank assets totaled $447.5 million, or 20.5 percent less than a year ago.

"We continue to reshape our balance sheet and move problem loans through the collection cycle," Cornerstone Bank President Frank Hughes said. "We have seen an improvement in the real estate market in Chattanooga and believe that the speed of disposal of properties will accelerate during 2011."